David Albert Neale

  David Albert Neale died peacefully with his wife of fifty years at his side on the afternoon of August 7, 2025 at the Peaks to Pines Senior Lodge in Coleman, Alberta. 

   Born in Calgary on March 31, 1938, David grew up in the Crowsnest Pass, where he explored the stunning landscape on foot and on horseback, nurturing his sense of adventure and independence. 

   David always believed in the art of the possible and met obstacles as a challenge, with ingenuity and hard work. He had a pioneering spirit and developed a love of horses early in his life. He often recounted his experiences as a teenager working as a camp attendant for a shepherd, being responsible for the pack horses, setting up camp and cooking meals. His early experiences on the land developed into a dream of working the land and having a farm. In the early 1970s, he took on one of the last homesteads in Alberta near Worsley where he worked to clear the land and bring it under cultivation.

   David believed strongly in education, always encouraging the young people in his life to advance their skills and qualifications. As a young man in the late 1950s, he went to Vancouver to pursue his education as a power engineer. This led to a long and varied career that took him to work at a pulp mill at Ocean Falls on BC’s Central Coast, the Lake Louise resort, the Oliver Mental Institution, gas plants all around Alberta, the Pope and Talbot sawmill in Midway, BC, food processing plants in southern Alberta and, finally, the Department of National Defence and Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC.

   David’s biggest passion and pleasure in his career was teaching and mentoring in his profession. He started the power engineering program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in the mid-1970s. He supported many students through that program and later through direct industry training and teaching at East Kootenay Community College. He helped many young people, including his brother-in-law, get started in their careers in industry and was always respected and appreciated by his students for his no-nonsense (or no-BS) approach and his sense of humor.  

   David met his wife Lorraine (née Callihoo) while working at NAIT. They married in 1975 and shared many adventures together with their son, Joel and daughter, Tina. David was never afraid to try new things and instilled a “can-do” attitude and strong work ethic in his children. David loved horses and always identified with the hard work and independence of farm and ranch life.  The family had several farms in the 1970s and 80s where they raised beef cattle (Athabasca, Alberta and Grand Forks, BC) and dairy (near Arborg, Manitoba). Along the way they also had horses and experimented with raising sheep and geese. 

   After leaving Manitoba in 1986, the family moved to Creston BC where David and Lorraine had a fire safety business and began investing in real estate. They owned several apartment buildings in Creston and Cranbrook while David continued to do contract teaching and their children finished high school. After dropping Tina off at the University of British Columbia to begin her undergraduate degree in 1994, David and Lorraine’s international adventures began. They spent the next decade living in Costa Rica and Mexico and traveling around the world. Their adventures included hiking the Milford Track in New Zealand, traveling the length of Chile and Argentina, living the vanlife in the Arizona desert, riding bicycles from John O’Groats, Scotland to Land’s End, England, and cycling across Newfoundland and Labrador. In the summers they returned to Canada and traveled in their RV visiting friends and family and taking jobs as campground managers in northern Saskatchewan and Ontario.   

   David and Lorraine settled back in southern Alberta in the 2000s, where David put his industry training to work again at various jobs and where they had contracts driving school buses in Cochrane and Foremost. They spent three years living closer to their daughter and grandchildren in Victoria, BC where David, now in his 70s, worked at the Esquimalt Department of National Defence base and the Royal Jubilee hospital as power plant operator and chief engineer respectively. After finally “retiring”, they returned to southern Alberta in 2016, living in Cardston, Pincher Creek and Lethbridge before moving back to David’s homeland in the Crowsnest Pass for his final weeks. 

   David is survived by his loving wife, Lorraine; his son, Joel; daughter, Tina; and grandchildren Daniel, Jonathan and Oliver. He was predeceased by his mother, Hazel Gushul (née Ford); stepfather, Evan Gushul; and brother Wallace (Bud) Neale. In the early 2000s, David was delighted to get to know his half-siblings, Peter Hurricks of Chichester, England, and Jackie Williams of Bishopstone, England, and nephew Nick Neale and his wife Julie of Perth, Australia and was grateful to have them in his life. 

   David’s family is planning a celebration of life for him in fall 2025. In lieu of flowers, David’s family asks that you honour his memory with a donation to the Salvation Army Canada (www.donate.salvationarmy.ca), or the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation (www.heartandstroke.ca) . Condolences may be registered at www.fantinsfuneralchapel.ca.

Fantin’s Funeral Chapel entrusted with the arrangements. (403) 562-8555

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